Could Melkor have wiped out the Quendi before Orome discovered them?

[Arda's Bane]

It was said in the Silmarillion that of the Valor it was Melkor who first discovoured the Quendi. This leaves me wondering why Melkor did not corrupt those that he could and kill those that he couldn't?
Surely that act would fit his nature and lets face it, he did not have much else on his place at the time.
So why didn't Melkor kill the Quendi when they were vulnerable?
he certainly had the power to do it and by that stage I would have thought that he would have delighted in the genocide of Illuvatar's children.
What are your thoughts?

 

[Confusticated]

I've thought about Melkor's lack of involvement in the early days of the Quendi quite a bit and I haven't found any real answers.

As for why he did not destroy them, it could be he feared Iluvatar. That seems reasonable enough to me. But I don't think he would have wanted to destroy them quite yet, it could be he wanted them to serve him along with the Ainur that he wanted as his subjects.

What gets me, is why didn't he go among them and become their lord? The elves knew nothing of Iluvatar and the Valar, and considering the way they took to the Valar when they did meet them, it's easy to assume Melkor would have had no trouble ruling them.

Here's what I asked in another thread:

Melkor could have destroyed the race of elves early at Cuivienen, but instead he only took a few and caused them to fear Orome.

Melkor did not try to have the Quendi worship him yet, but only wanted them to fear the Valar. Looks like the beginning of turning the elves against the Valar, but if this was his intention he was very subtle and had only began. Just what was Melkor planning with the elves? To let them increase in the world and then go in for the domination, and bring them up against the Valar? Why didn't Melkor go among the elves and feign friendship? Why wait for the numbers to increase? But we can be sure Melkor was scheming as usual, so what was he planning?

Men, he used as a tool of evil, he ensured that a race destined to thrive in the world would be doing his work all the while, but if he was so nihilstic at this point as Tolkien says in Myth's Transformed, why didnt he just kill these men while he could? Why should a nihilist be planting seeds of evil when he could have destroyed then and there? Did he want to bring them all up against the Valar and maybe eventually Iluvatar? Was he getting pleasure out of displeasing Iluvatar with having won over his children to evil?

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The elves... I am not satisfied with this answer, but it is the only thing I can come up with that would make any kind of sense: Maybe Melkor knew the Valar would invite elves to Valinor, and wanted the elves to go there, thinking they would be of more use to him that way. Aman was the only part of the world that wasn't under him at this point, and also the dwelling place of what he would have thought of as his biggest threat. With this, the reason for him causing elves to fear Orome, would be to keep them to himself long enough to figure them out well enough to be able to fool them later. Melkor going among the Quendi at Cuivienen would cause the Valar to be careful in protecting the Quendi against him forever after, maybe. But elves would have been a better tool once in Aman, on enemy ground, than they would as a small few hidden away in the darkness of Middle-earth only to be discovered soon by the Valar. So, elves weapons against the Valar in Arda, and Men against Iluvatar.

 

[Lantarion]

Yes, Melkor was incredibly sly (a trait repeated in his lieutenant Sauron ), and was probably thinking ahead, as a Vala would have some power to do, I assume. He wanted to cause as much slight and as much pain to the other Valar as he could, and probably figured that slowly turning the Elves against the Valar and slowly sending them to their deaths ove the Ages would wound the Lords of the West more than just wiping them all out in one blow.

But I think a fundemental flaw (or hamartia) of Melkor's was that he underestimated the Eldar: he saw them as little more than the beautiful toys of the Valar, and figured he would break them slowly and easily.
But he didn't take into account that they had free minds, and were far mightier than he could ever have imagined; that's why he began to hate them even more. And as a result of this error, he warred with them for thousands of years and was eventually cast out because of them. Haha, in your face!
And what's really funny is that Melkor (and Sauron) made the sam mistake with Men! 'Live and learn' was obviously not in their Cliché-booklet.

 

[Gil-Galad]

I think that both Nom and Lanty said the reasons why Melkor did not "deal" with the Quendi.
First of all I think he underestimated them.At that time his eyes were watching only Valinor and he actually thought(or I think he thought)that the Quendi did not deserve any special attention.

At the same time he was probably afraid of Eru.The Elves were Eru's children and I doubt Melkor wanted to destroy Eru's Firstborn,Melkor probably did not know what the concequences would have been if he had done it.

 

[Mouth of Sauron]

I disagree. I don't think Melkor feared Eru at all, or else he wouldn't have done all the things he did and was later to do. Rather, I think that it was not enough for Melkor to simply destroy the Children of Iluvatar. Melkor was crueller than that; he wanted to ruin them, slowly, little by little. He wanted to enjoy it, so he took his time.

 

[Thorondor_]

So why didn't Melkor kill the Quendi when they were vulnerable?

Ainulindale:

and he wished himself to have subject and servants, and to be called Lord, and to be a master over other wills

 

[Ithrynluin]

Besides all the perfectly good reasons already proposed, I think it may also have been a mere matter of time - Melkor lacked a substantial amount of time to really concoct a devious and large-scale plan as to how to encompass a whole race and put them under his domination. Oromë arrived too soon and hauled them away, and despite the fear that Melkor had instilled in the elves of Oromë, they still came round and saw him for the esentially good, though awe-inspiring, being that he was.